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GM Joel’s Chess Week Recap - Episode 39
Opening: A41, E21, B00, C49, C67:
Player(s): Ju Wenjun, Petrosian, Shimanov, Li Ruifeng, Zherebukh, Shabalov, Friedel, Meier
As the World Cup winds down, chess events begin to reawaken elsewhere. There were two international round robins in St. Louis, and while they are not as eye-catching as the action in Tbilisi, they provide welcome competition for American players, especially young up and comers. International "A" was won by German Grandmaster Georg Meier and American Yaroslav Zherebukh with the modest score of 5.5-3.5. I say "American" Zherebukh because Zherebukh lives here and represents the US, but he is still trying to become American in the fullest sense. The young Americans Awonder Liang, Daniel Naroditsky, and Li Ruifeng did not do all that well, though Liang managed fifty percent and the other two were at minus one (the tournament had a very small spread). Josh Friedel had an excellent result in winning the B International with 6.5 points. He had an interesting win over the veteran of the section, Alex Shabalov.